


Nothing But the Truth

by Laylah



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-13
Updated: 2009-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laylah/pseuds/Laylah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe he won't ever be completely better. But he can live like this.</p><p>[SPOILERS THROUGH THE TRUE ENDING]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing But the Truth

He knows a lot about how parole hearings work in general. If it were anybody else's, he thinks this one would be boring. But it's amazing how interesting even routine procedural stuff can be when it's personal. Adachi sits in the uncomfortable wooden chair across the table from the parole board and tries to make eye contact when he answers the questions. Yes, he understands what he did wrong. Yes, he regrets it. No, he hasn't had any more violent urges since he started taking the medication and talking to the therapist. Yes, he has some idea what he would do if he got out.

After they've heard enough from him, the board calls in his therapist to talk about disorders and recidivism and dosage, and to argue the merits of positive environment. It could still go either way. He's been working hard on the good behavior, but it might not be enough. The state of the bodies counts against him; it wasn't as though he could explain how they really got like that.

And then it turns out they have a letter from Detective Dojima, too -- not just about Adachi's cooperation in custody, but offering to help him get acclimated to the outside again. It's like the ambulance, he thinks. Later he'll decide that it was probably his reaction to the letter that made up their minds, the way he got all stammery and lost for words. What makes a guy that forgiving, anyway?

*

Dojima comes to pick him up when he actually gets released, waiting with the car outside the gates. He's scowling. Adachi tries smiling at him, but he doesn't smile back. "Get in the car," he says.

Adachi gets in the car, buckles his seatbelt -- man, Dojima yelled at him the one time he didn't bother -- and waits until they've pulled out of the prison parking lot before he says, "Thanks."

"For the ride?" Dojima asks.

"...Yeah," Adachi says. He's not sure how to talk about the rest, not sure if he _can_ say thanks for all of it. They let him make a phone call when his release date had been set. He called his parents. They wouldn't take the call. He's mad about that, but he was kind of expecting it, too. He's a disgrace, right?

They drive down the highway toward Inaba in silence for a while. "Not just for the ride," Adachi says eventually.

"Hn," Dojima says. "Don't disappoint me."

*

He gets a job stocking shelves at the drugstore. It's boring as hell, but the guy who hires him is new in town and doesn't remember the murders firsthand. He gets an apartment about three blocks down the street from where Yamano's body was found. It's an ugly little place, but the landlady's willing to let him in the door. He gets a prescription and two weekly appointments to talk about how he's feeling -- and whether he's feeling anything at all. It's the boring, ugly life he was trying so hard to avoid before, and it's still not satisfying but he's...more tired now than he was before prison, and he doesn't want to fight it quite so much. At least Dojima comes to see him after work some days. He knows it's just that he's still a suspect, will probably _always_ be a suspect now, and Dojima wants to keep an eye on him so he doesn't try anything. But it breaks the monotony, and that's nice.

*

He gives Dojima a call one evening. "Adachi," Dojima says into the phone. No _hello_. "Something the matter?"

"Not...really," Adachi says. "I was just wondering if you were going to stop by tonight."

Dojima laughs shortly. "You're that bored?"

It's getting dark in his apartment. He hasn't bothered to turn any lights on yet. "I don't exactly have a busy social calendar," Adachi says.

There's heavy silence on the line for a minute. "Yeah," Dojima says. "I guess that's no surprise." He takes a breath, lets it out in a sigh. "Look. You want to come over for dinner?"

"Hey, really?" Adachi says. "Yeah, sure."

"I'll pick you up when I get out of work," Dojima says, and Adachi almost says thanks for that before he realizes that of course it's just that Dojima doesn't want him to get there first, and be alone in the house with Nanako. Which...is fair.

"I'll see you in a while, then," Adachi says.

*

When he says hi to Nanako, it feels awkward and a little...painful, maybe. He should mention that at his next appointment. Feeling complicated things is supposed to be a good sign.

Nanako studies him with serious owl eyes. "Dad says you were sick," she says, "and that's why you did bad things."

"Yeah," Adachi says. He can feel Dojima watching him. "I guess that's a pretty good way to put it."

"But you're not sick anymore?" Nanako asks.

Adachi looks over at Dojima, and yeah, he's getting the interrogation stare. "I'm getting better," he says. "Thanks to your dad."

Dojima makes a thoughtful sound. "That's good," Nanako says. "Dad didn't like it when you were sick. It made him sad."

"Nanako," Dojima protests.

That hurts, too, but Adachi smiles anyway.

*

His therapist compares it to being in a bad car accident and then learning to walk again. The comparison isn't all that great, Adachi doesn't think, because not a lot of what happened that year was accidental. But he gets the point of the metaphor anyway. This stuff is going to take time and hard work. He goes to his job. He pays his rent. He visits with the Dojima family when he's welcome. It's true, about the positive environment. A bad day in Inaba is better than a good day in prison.

Maybe he won't ever be completely better. He'll probably always have to take the medication. But he can live like this.

*

Dojima's in the other room, putting Nanako to bed. Adachi gets up from the couch.

His apartment doesn't have a TV in it. He's thought about getting one, once or twice, but so far it hasn't really been worth the trouble. Money's pretty tight, and he'd always be tempted to do what he's doing right now. He reaches out toward the screen, not sure what he's expecting.

His head fills with static and there's a second of soft, organic resistance, and then he's inside the screen up to the wrist, and it feels like...like nothing, in there. Like draining away all the frustration and the awkwardness, like cold, empty _power_.

Adachi jerks his hand back, dizzy, and stumbles. He smacks his head on the edge of the table when he falls.

Dojima's out there in two seconds. "Adachi!" he says. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Adachi says automatically. He puts a hand to the back of his head. It's swelling up already.

"Don't give me that crap," Dojima says. He looks from Adachi to the television and back again. He frowns.

If he doesn't admit to anything, the option will still be there. That power. That escape. He studies the floor between Dojima's feet. "I think...I probably shouldn't get a TV for my place," he says.

There's silence for a minute, like Dojima expects him to say more. He doesn't.

Dojima sighs. "Get your coat," he says. "I'll take you home."

Adachi nods. The truth is there, waiting, not yet spoken. "Thanks."


End file.
